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December 2001 - Habenero Falls Las Cruces, NM Trail Rating - 4.5+ Trip Leader: Max Bennett Photos submitted by Chris Villarreal What do 800+ miles, 1 extreme New Mexico trail, and overturned semi and roughly 24 hours have in common? Call me crazy, but that was my Sunday. Actually the clock started ticking at 8:30 pm Sat evening when I left for Tucson to pick up Tom Picard. The plan was to get there by 11pm, grab 3-4 hours of sleep and then head for Las Cruces around 3:30am on Sunday. We got up on time and left promptly at 3:30am. Things were a little tense because I hadn't topped off the tank when I passed thru Tucson and low fuel light was on as soon as we hit the interstate. The nearest open gas station was just outside of Benson and of course it was all pretty much uphill so the gas mileage was in the single digits.. I put just over 23.5 gallons in the 25 gallon tank. We hit the road and set the cruise at 75 and were making good time until.....
(Click for larger images) We saw brake lights in the distance. Traffic came to a halt at around 4:00am. Shortly afterwards we could see flashing lights just ahead.
Roughly an hour later the sun started coming up. We hadn't moved at all. A quick trip up towards the emergency vehicles revealed the cause of the stoppage. A semi had clipped the guard rail on a bridge and flipped over blocking both lanes of traffic. We were stuck with no way across the median and had to wait till a tow truck arrived to pull the overturned semi over to clear a lane.
Here's a couple shots Tom took as we passed the wreck. An hour and a half behind schedule, we tried to make up the time but it proved to much of a delay. By the time we reached Las Cruces it was 9:30am, the group of guys we were supposed to meet had waited a little extra but actually pulled out around 7:30am. This might have been the end of my trip report but sometimes you get lucky. First I bought an atlas of New Mexico, hoping to see a familiar name on a wash or river that would start us in the right direction. It was a long shot that proved fruitless. Next we headed back to the RV park where some of the guys stayed. We got back there by 10am when they opened, Tom inquired about four wheeling trails but the clerk there couldn't help us. As he was walking out he noticed a flyer for one of the local 4 wheel drive clubs. He dialed the phone number on the flyer, someone answered and we were soon on our way with directions to the trailhead. One hurdle down. We knew were getting close when we rounded a corner and spotted a bunch of tow rigs and trailers. We unloaded the Zuk and headed up into the hills. While Tom tried raising the guys on the CB, I headed for the nearest peak to get a look around. We knew we were on the right path when we spotted Bill Johnston's white Samurai parked on a ridge. Hoping the group was close we followed the ridge and soon spotted some vehicles in the valley below. I drove till the road ended at the top of one peak and hiked down into a small valley then up the next peak and found the group! Like I said sometimes you get lucky.
We said our hellos and hopped in line. The next trail was Habenero Falls. Here's the trail description from the Las Cruces 4 Wheel Drive Club : Habenero Falls is located on the northwestern edge of the Chile Canyons system. You will enjoy spectacular views of the Mesilla Valley and the visibility can range over fifty miles on a clear day! After
a mild start down into the Chile Canyons , you will slowly start
your climb out, this is were the fun begins. The climax of the trail
is seven, yes seven, consecutive waterfalls. With good
clearance and solid lockers you may be able to climb each without
assistance. One of the waterfalls is featured in the WARN
Chile Challenge Poster! Sounded tasty.... The trail started out easy enough with some small ledges like those shown above. Tim Justice's Zuk was pretty cool to watch. It's stretched to about a 95 inch wheelbase, missing links up front, 1/4 elliptical in the back and a VW diesel motor. I liked the flat bed out back.
The second step was pretty steep. Tim Justice came down hard on one of his locating bars and ripped it's mount from the frame and snapped the mounting bolt for the mount in two. Our trip leader came to the rescue. Using his onboard welder he was able to hook up a grinder and clean up the bracket, then with the creative use of what was left of the bolt the bracket was welded back on and we were on our way.
You don't see these on the trail everyday. This Chevy Luv had Toyota axles, a V6, auto tranny and crawled over everything and anything in it's path.
Messing around on the rocks as we descended into the canyon.
Lots of medium to large ledges and drop offs to navigate.
This was a fun little spot. In the first shot I had just backed off from that line. After that notice where Tom is leaning in the second shot :) |
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